Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up
in the Diocese of WilmingtonDocuments and Other Resources

As part of the Non-Monetary Undertakings and Stipulations in the settlement between the Diocese of Wilmington and survivors of clergy sexual abuse, the diocese committed to release documents relating to the sexual abuse of minors by priests in the diocese. Today BishopAccountability.org has begun to post the documents.

We start with selected documents from the Clarahan, DeLuca, Dudzinski, and Smit files. Today and into next week, we will post documents from other priest files, and additional documents from files that have already been sampled on this page. We will also provide important documents on the operations of the Diocese of Wilmington.

In the spirit of the non-monetary provisions, we are taking a cautious approach to the redaction of survivors' names in the documents. However, if we have redacted a survivor's name in the documents and he or she would prefer to be named, or if redactions need to be improved in other ways, please contact us, and we will make the adjustments.

• Describes an allegation that Clarahan abused a boy age 13 in 1958
• Same allegation as discussed by the survivor in a letter to Mulvee
• "States he believes his brother was abused. Says he knows of others who were allegedly abused."
• This document is the first page of a six-page summary of allegations against dead priests, other pages of which appear in other priest files. There are multiple copies of some pages, with different diocesan redactions. This consolidated version gathers the least-redacted pages into a single document comprising all the pages.

• "The man would always find a way to stick his hand down their pants and grab their privates."
• "When his son ___ was 8, [my brother] committed suicide. He was never able to resolve all the emotional conflict that befell him."
• "I just want someone to know that there is an entire iceberg of pain under the visual tip that the church has finally been forced to recognize."
• Official assignment records of Clarahan and Cornely are not consistent with this email.
• Partly redacted by CDOW

• "I specifically asked if there was anything more the church could do ... she responded in the negative."
• "I handed the matter over to our attorneys, who in turn will be in touch with the appropriate State's Attorney in ___."
• Added note reads: "11/2002 Used as Date Abuse was Reported to DOW" – this does not reflect that notice was received in 1966
• Partly redacted by CDOW

• "___ asked me if I could give her some assurance that nothing happened since she knew Fr. Clarahan was a recovering alcoholic and perhaps he did his abuse when under the influence. At the time of her son's' visits to the priests' Fr. Clarahan had begun, his recovery. I obviously could not give her that assurance and told her why."

• 'Your own welfare as well as that of the diocese is involved."
• "Advise others who ask that you were simply unable to attend."
• "Frs. Dillingham, Cook and Baumgartel ... are aware of this matter as well."
• Lemon was cc'd
• CDOW redactions

• "Boys" is circled in "Altar Boys" with DeLuca's note, "no gals here!!" and "23 lads a Sunday"
• See the complete bulletin as sent to Lemon
• DeLuca often sent "Clem" materials from Syracuse and added handwritten comments, signed "Franz"

• "8/2002 Used as Date Abuse was Reported to DOW" although the caller indicated abuse was first reported 1962-1967
• Victim's top concern is that "a predator priest from this diocese is in New York possibly harming other little boys."
• Survivor W-005's name redacted by BA.

• The mother is "reported to have said that those two boys would never be out of her vision whenever they were in the company of Fr. DeLuca."• "It should be noted here that Deluca says he had seen them once or twice when he had visited Delaware in previous years."
• Info Cini has may not qualify as failure to report abuse but is apparently concurrent with abuse that led to criminal conviction in NY
• Names of W-005 and W-003 redacted by BA

• Document heavily redacted by CDOW. Inclusion of Harry Walker on a 2003 list of abusive priests is notable because CDOW did not include Walker on Saltarelli's 2006 public list.
• Moreover, another copy of this memo elsewhere in the released documents is redacted differently, showing that Weaver is also included in the memo but not in Saltarelli's list:
• "Here is a case 'out there' and if it pops we are not ready. It seems to me Msgr. Lemon and Fr. McGlynn have details about the case since both were in touch with the victim and/or family members."

• "Fr. DeLuca stated that there was contact with five young men/boys and while no penetration or fondling was involved, orgasm occurred 'while on top of the boys that he was involved with.'"
• For the 1993 allegation, see Lemon's notes
• Survivor W-003's name redacted by BA. Survivor W-005 is called M. in the memo.

• "One day Father said they needed to do some things at the rectory that involved several hours so he should ask his parents if he could stay overnight. Permission was given. That night the first abuse was committed."

• "Of the eleven deceased priests, I count three as having something in the newspaper about them in the last ten years – Lind, just recently; Mackiewicz and Carley probably around the time of their deaths.... That leaves no publicity about Fathers Clarahan, Gardiner, Power, Vignola, Cornely, Dreyer, Harney, {redacted}
• Strangely, though Cini had already mentioned Weaver and Walker in a 3/20/03 memo to Saltarelli, he fails to name at least one here.

• CDOW VG's first response is to direct victim's mother to church authorities in Syracuse rather than DA's office or police. Costello reports abuse to civil authorities.
• Survivor W-006's name redacted by BA
• A Cini letter in the Smit and McGovern files states that, as a result of the NY allegation, the Review Board "unanimously and strongly recommended to Bishop Saltarelli that he change his position strongly held these past four years of not revealing names and release all names now. The Bishop has accepted the Review Board's recommendation."

• Fr. Stephen Connell was pastor at DeLuca's last assignment.
• Connell was "not surprised. He had heard about Frank years before. Cited an incident of {redacted} & F. – trip to NY & {redacted} sleeping with F. at St. Matthew's" where DeLuca was pastor 1976-1982
• Survivor W-003's name redacted by BA.

• "I do not believe I deserve the honor of being involved in any active ministry and am truly sorry for any harm caused to you, the people of our Diocese and to those priests who work so hard to spread the gospel with integrity and holiness."

• The entire text of the deposition redacted by CDOW. We link those redacted pages. However, the documents released by CDOW include a quotation from this deposition, in which W-002 describes being anally raped by Dudzinski. The CDOW documents also include another deposition by W-002, excerpted here, in which he discussed a gang rape allegedly perpetrated by Dudzinski and Rev. Timothy Mullen.

Excerpts: • Explained how he told me in 1987 that this matter was about a little girl sitting in his lap -- untrue! "That is what started it."
• Blames the seminary system for not helping us deal with our sexuality.
• Smit has ministered at Resurrection parish [in Newark DE]

• In the document release, these remarkable notes were in reverse chronological order, batched by session; in the link to the left, we have put them in chronological order; see also their original order